Choose Happy

May 21, 2014

So. I made a few tweaks to the frame collage in the girls room. This are always at risk of getting changed around here so that should be no surprise, right? I know I’m not the only ‘tweaker’ (not to be confused with ‘twerker’ which I most definitely am not…in public…sorry Miley). At the time that I first hung the frames, I framed a free printable I found online that said “Choose Happy” and I loved it (still do) but it didn’t fill the frame like I thought it would so I had to extend the mat and dah, dum, dee. Not my favorite improv. See?

So, I switched things up by spray painting the frame white and adding my own rendition. Much better.

Here’s how. Last Christmas I strung our Christmas cards on some glittery gold ribbon and hung them over our french doors. Well, when I was taking them down I couldn’t bring myself to toss the pretty gold ribbon I used so I cut it up into little squares and packed it away for a rainy day via ziploc. That day came around last week. I snatched those squares out of hiding and glued them in a gradient pattern onto a piece of white freezer paper that I cut to fit the frame. A tiny dab of Elmer’s on the back of each square was all it took.

Then, to keep the ‘Choose Happy’ (because let’s be honest, this hangs right over the changing table and diaper changes call for that reminder), I whipped up the phrase using pixlr.com, rotated it so it printed backwards, and taped it to the glass on the outside of the frame.

Next, I took out the paint I used on these lamps and with a very fine paintbrush, painted the glass on the inside of the frame right over each letter. I did three coats so that the next layer of paint wouldn’t be visible through the green. The acrylic paint I used dried super fast so I was able to do all three coats, one after the other.

Then, using the coral paint I intended this desk to be cloaked in, I went over the dried green paint with a thicker paintbrush.

Painting with the fine brush followed by the thick brush gave the letters this two-toned look:

Using things I already had made this little project 100% free, just like I like it. And, if the winds of spontaneity make me want to have “Keep Calm & Don’t Breathe It In” or something along those lines plastered in that spot instead, I can easily scrape off the happiness and paint on something else nice and quicklike. Win, win. :)

In case you want to post this little reminder on painted glass like I did, I’ve made the ‘Choose Happy’ downloadable for ya (thanks to Deme for the excellent tutorial on how to be tech savvy like that).

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